[fpc-pascal] A serious Memleak using delegates/implements (was: Delegate Interface class does not seem to be referenced counted)

[Marcos Douglas]

On Fri, Oct 7, 2016 at 6:49 AM, Tony Whyman
<tony.whyman at mccallumwhyman.com> wrote:
> The problem being referred to is the functionality described here:
>
> http://freepascal.org/docs-html/current/ref/refse44.html#x98-1200007.4
>
> under the title "Interface delegation". The word "contained" does not appear
> here. Maybe it should, but it doesn't. If TContainedObject does indeed solve
> the problem then it would be useful to have it documented and, if so, for
> interface delegation using a TInterfacedObject subclass to be at least
> deprecated and may be even barred.
>
> The problem is that this is Rabbit Hole and it needs filling in otherwise
> more will fall down it.

In a Facebook group, called Delphi developer, Michal Mutl says:
Also you can implement TIntegerValue as TIntegerValue =
class(TAggregatedObject, IValue) and you can really take advantage of
ARC (no Free call in TMyApp Destroy impl). But then you must use it
only as delegate, not standalone (ExecuteIntegerValue will fail).

I didn't know about TContainedObject or TAggregatedObject... these
classes solve the problem? Maybe. But not so fast.

I've implemeted a Lib and I would like to say to my team:
— If you needs to implements an IStream interface, you can use
delegates, just use the TDataStream class.

The team shouldn't know about the hierarchy; about how was implemented
these classes.
They can use TDataStream directly or as a contained object.
But as I understood, we need to use TContainedObject or
TAggregatedObject only in these "special cases"

I didn't test yet. I will. But if I'm right, ie, if TDataStream is
inherited from TContainedObject and, because that, I can not use
TDataStream as a simple instance, without a "root" object... well,
this design is wrong.

If somebody says: "You should know these classes..." or "you should
know what you're doing..."
I will answer: this is not about OOP, just procedural. OOP is about
encapsulation. If I need to see the class' code, this means that it
was not well done.

Best regards,
Marcos Douglas